In this chat last Friday morning, Hon. (Chief) Billy Famous Adesuwa Osawaru, the member representing Uhunmwode/Orhionmwon federal constituency in the National Assembly, spoke without holding back on several issues.
Below is the highlight of the interview.
During the campaign I did promised as at that time I understood that there are things like capital projects and constituency projects otherwise known as ZIP(Zonal Intervention Projects). Having done my own research I found out that was one way the reps members were able to work for their people in terms of infrastructural development and I used it to campaign too because it was statutory. When I came onboard we got those ZIP awarded and of course what I do as a lawmaker is to attract those projects not to do those projects as a contractor.
I have been able to attract both the ZIP and the capital projects. I am glad to tell you too that during my campaign I still promised too that I wanted to do things differently because of the clime that I am coming from. By next year I would be thirty years in America. I understood that system very well. There’s something they call accountability. I wanted to bring that into our own politics here where you have to do town hall meetings. It is nothing but accountability to your people and it’s something one have to do regularly. I promised my people that I will be doing that town hall meetings every quarter.
Of course, after my elections I went for a supplementary elections. After the supplementary election I was taken to tribunal. I won at the tribunal, I was taken to the appeal court. I left the appeal court on the 22nd of December, 2023. All those things affected the speed I intended to do my job. But from January I kicked off I started working on those things. I did my first town hall meeting two months ago and I did my first ZIP which was empowerment. As a reps member I have these primary duties to my people one of which is to make laws, the other is to represent your people while another is oversight. I can tell you I have been trying my best and making laws.
As we speak now I have nothing less than fifteen motions under my belt in the past one year with three bills that have passed the first reading.
Two others to be read again within the next two weeks. If we talk of oversight I have been out there with the various committees that I belong to. Some of those committees include works, constituency outreach. I am the deputy chairman committee on poverty alleviation. I have been going on oversight because I am one of those that really believe if we want to get things right in the country we must do more oversight as lawmakers because that’s where our power is. If we do not carry out proper oversight we are just giving the executive a free day to do whatever they want to do.
That means we have just told the executive they don’t have to be accountable to the Nigerian people.
Don’t forget we are the representatives of the Nigerian people. Three hundred and sixty members in the house we represent every nook and cranny of Nigeria.
That’s why we’re broken into federal constituencies. Whatever we do is because of what we’re holding in trust for our people. That’s why there’s hardly any oversight that I will miss in the committees that I belong to. When I was campaigning I used it too. If we begin to get our oversight right our executives will start to do the right things too. I think we still have a lot to do when it comes to oversight. We’re not where we have to be yet but I believe with the 10th Assembly, the way we are going now we are very serious about oversight. As a matter of fact there was a contribution on the floor of the house where I actually participated that have to do with submission of budget. We have constitutionally for the budget to be submitted to the National Assembly at least four months to the end of the year. I talked about how it will impugn on our oversight functions if we let the MDAs wait till the last month of the year before presenting their budget that would have taken oversight out of our business. At that point we are being rushed, just like what happened last year, to go and get the budget passed within a month.
We’re discouraging that kind of attitude. That those things must be submitted. I am one person that believes in doing the right thing and doing it well. And oversight is one of those things. Coming back to representation, I just believe if you’re amongst three hundred and sixty people and you are representing a federal constituency, in my own case, Orhionmwon and Uhunmwode, I need to know why I am there. It’s not a place where you sit down and wait for others to fight your fight. I have been very vocal and very aggressive to make sure whatever is due to my own people must be given to them. I believe in give what belongs to Cesar to Cesar.
I am from a mostly rural federal constituency. I know what my people lack. Orhionmwon and Uhunmwode are two local governments very close to the capital city of Benin. But we’re still very backwards when it comes to infrastructural development. That’s where we still have villages that have never seen light before. And it will interest you to know that when you cross this Uhunmwode or Orhionmwon you get into other local governments for example like in Edo North, Edo Central. You hardly find a village now in those places where they have never seen light. But in my own constituency we have so many villages that have never seen light.
Now, I have resolved to fight that the mandate have been given now. Within the next three years I am going to do everything to make sure some of the basic things our people need they should not lack. That’s why part of my capital project is the borehole. I am actually going to be sinking boreholes in almost every ward. I think it’s a crime to still find our people so close to development but yet so far from it. That our people go to the stream to get water. You know what that means, getting clean and healthy water that will not cause more harm than good.
That’s why I resolved that water been one of those basic things that people must have to survive is one of those projects that I would embark on within the next three years. We have already started.
As we speak there are some communities where they’re sinking boreholes. Light is another basic that our people must have. Some of them have never seen light in their homes before buy it’s not an exercise you carry out in one day.
You are going to talk about how you are going to run the poles to those villages; how to draw those wires to those villages; how to get transformers to those villages. Those ones the proposal I have already put in. I am working with the REA(Rural Electrification Agency). I am working with Ministry of Power too to see that a lot of those things are in place and we are already working on that so that some of them can make budget this year. While we’re working on those I just figured out some of the easiest things I can do as a reps member is to light up those villages.
With solar light now we can do a lot of things to light up those villages especially when you get to those places at night. It’s so disheartening and heartbreaking to get into those villages. Our villages start before the bypass. You will be so shocked that these are places that just minutes away from Benin City. When you go there at night they’re so dark and scary. I have decided to light up those communities. As we speak now, by the grace of God, I am lighting up about 15 wards out of the 22 wards that make up my federal constituency starting from next week. But before now I have done some other wards.
I don’t believe in bragging just for the sake of bragging. I believe what you have promised the people fight for it and let them see it. The third one is health. I just carried out two medical outreach in the last two months – one in Abudu and one in Ehor. As we speak we don’t have a general hospital in my constituency.
I felt that the least I could do as a reps member was to bring this medical outreach to my people where we can start with basic medical test where people that are not feeling good can go carry out test to know where exactly the problem is.
We did a lot of those things and gave them free treatment. They carried out those test, diagnosed them. They were given medical treatment.
People that had eye problem were given glasses on the spot. Next week we are starting another medical outreach. This time we are focusing more on people that have cataract.
There’s a surgery that has been scheduled for November. I am working with Ojemen Foudation, Professor Obamogie that lives in the US. They’ll be coming in November to carry out surgeries on cataract.
What we did before was how to deal with hypertension, how to prevent it.
For education you might have seen some of those schools that we have started constructing that I attracted. There was a school at Uzalla that caused lot of problems some few months ago in social media. I went there to inspect. It was a school in a very bad condition and our children were compelled to learn under those bad condition and it made it to the social media. It was a big embarrassment.
I flew in from Abuja went there to inspect and I was trying to quickly do something at least in form of an alternative for those children. There was already a building being constructed through the community effort of the Uzalla people. I was trying to work with an agency, CSDP, where you can do counterpart funding. I met with the rep and I was willing to pay that counterpart fund for them to complete the building so that those children would be moved in.
For some reason the state government called the guy and discouraged him from working with me. I now had to fight and see how I can get it into the budget. Thank God I was able to get that project into the budget. As we speak right now that building is already being constructed. In Igbanke we have another school being constructed because all those things are basic things we should be able to give to our people.
On his alleged suspension from the APC for antiparty activities
I am glad you used alleged. You know in our politics it is very funny how certain people with ambition how desperate they can be. Lately, we have found out there are some few people that are already planning to run against me in 2027.
They felt part of their strategy is to go to my ward and my local government and start giving them money to say all kinds of stuff and social media is now more of a free for all where anybody can just go and post something there and it keeps trending.
That was exactly what happened. Some few people were given money just for the embarrassment. They know that nothing of such took place. As politicians those are some of the things that we should expect.
That political opponents would always do some crazy things. They have come up with some write-ups that we have resolved the issue because what they were trying to achieve they could not.
They pushed some of those messages to the governor-elect and he told them there’s no merit. That those things should stop. Your people will say things, they’ll do things. It doesn’t mean that you will start fighting them you still call them to the table and provide your leadership. In this case a ward chairman with two other exco members out of 27 came out and wrote something on social media.
That was why my ward exco members more than 18 of them got so angry because their signatures were forged and suspended the ward chairman and the two others.
They said they never held a meeting, their signatures were forged. They felt that was going too far and they suspended the ward chairman. The party leaders have called me and pleaded with me. If you talk of anti party I have never sat with anybody either from PDP or LP before in my life.
I was one of those that stood in front to campaign for APC with everything. APC is my party, I am proud of the party. I worked for APC and will continue to work for it because if I have a governor that’s APC that makes my job easier. The Benins say if you have only one man that’s rich in the family that family is poor.
On the bills that he has sponsored
One of the bills is the establishment of a College of Agriculture in Uronigbe. My federal constituency is mostly rural. We must know what our strengths are. One of it is farming. Comparative analysis. If we have to compete in anything farming would be one of them.
Having a College of Agriculture in Uronigbe which is a part of my federal constituency is going to attract a lot of funds, a lot of support from not only the federal government but even the international community.
We have research institutes that will be willing to come to those places. Even in Orhionmwon we have this forestry research council that was moved not too long ago which is a shame. I just feel we should be having more things in addition to what we already have. Instead we have been getting some of those things we have been taken away. I just felt it would be nice for me to begin to attract some of those things back.
The general hospital in Egor that’s another bill. As we speak as big as Uhunmwode Local Government is we do not have a general hospital.
Anytime there’s a case of emergency a lot of them don’t make it to the city. I felt it will be nice for us to have a general hospital as well.
Another comparative analysis, where we’re supposed to have a fruit juice factory in Uhunmwode that was already 80percent completed by the then government of Chief Lucky Igbinedion was abandoned and I felt it will take us less to get things like that running than trying to embark on white elephant ptojects.
How will the state collaborate with the federal government on the fruit juice factory?
When I was working on those bills APC didn’t have a governor in Edo State. Now our party is in government in the state. Most of those things they play politics with them even when you are open to the government of the day in your state irrespective of which party you belong to some of them are not that open. So I had to look at the federal.
Working on those bills I was looking at the federal so that whatever we will be doing we will be doing with the federal government ministries.
Now that we have a governor it will be easier and faster. And it will do us more good if I am able to attract anything positive from the federal and work with the state government I think it’s going to be a win win.
On the federal government plans to alleviate poverty
I was the one that moved the motion on the floor when there was the suspension of the conditional cash transfer and other programmes. I think the beginning of this year. The President suspended those programmes. I was the one that moved the motion on the floor for the resumption of those programmes.
These are supposed to be the programmes to alleviate the poverty of the people. I moved it. I know that motion was not too popular amidst the people in the federal government circle, especially the executives. I have to because I represent the people. Yes, our President means well for the people.
Sometimes when things are that bad it gets worse before it gets better. Why? Because you are doing an overhaul.
I have always used a building as an analogy. For example, when you have a building that’s poorly constructed and it gets to the roofing stage you want to put a roof on it and a professional dectects that building is poorly constructed. If you put the roof on it that building might not stand the test of time.
What do you have to do? Usually the advice would be you may have to tear down a part of that building down reinforce it again so that building can stand the test of time.
That’s just the situation we are in in Nigeria. Yes it’s so hard to believe but that’s what it is.
A lot of things have gone wrong. So when we’re talking about policies reform now. There are some policies that would not be too popular among the people right now. But those are policies that we must bring up for us to get it right. I think that’s what the President is doing.
But while he is doing that we are still the representatives of the people. Our people can take some pain but we don’t want them to take the pains they cannot come out of.
That’s where we come in. To make sure when it looks like they are getting too far to the extent that our people can take those pain no more we will get up and say we got to slow it down. For example there was a time that Central Bank introduced some types of fees that was going to roll over to the people.
Of course, we got up on the floor of the house and objected to it. We called on Central Bank to revert that decision immediately and they did. That’s just an example. That’s why we are there. That’s why we represent the people. When we see how these things are affecting our people we have to cry out.
In as much as we know the intention of the federal government is okay. But everything has to do with elasticity. What is the elastic limit of our people. If you are bringing policy reforms and we know at the end of the day by the time these reforms start working positively. Those people you’ve carried out those reforms for are no longer alive what’s the use of the reforms? That’s why we’re here to checkmate the executives when these things are coming.
Why we have some of these issues when it comes to poverty alleviation within the past one year because we didn’t have a minister. Since the former Minister was suspended everything about the Ministty of Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation was at a standstill.
Nothing worked until just todays ago when they brought the new Minister. I can assure you as the deputy chairman of Committee of Poverty Alleviation that we’re going to be working in full speed with the new Ministers. I think we have a Minister now and a Minister of State.
We have a lot of things in the pipeline. We’re going to try and see how we can work day and night for the Nigerian people. So that all these programmes whether it’s the school feeding progamme; the conditional cash transfer etc. We have a lot of things that they have put in place.
Now, we have Ministers and Director Generals(DGs) in charge of those different agencies.
I know within the next few months you will begin to see results. We’re ready to work with them. I know the President will continue to do everything to make sure they alleviate the poverty of Nigerian people. It is just a matter of time. I know by the grace of God this time next year would begin to heave a sigh of relief.
On Senator Ashiru and the NDLEA
That’s one of the challenges we face as lawmakers. The challenge of blackmail; the challenge of setup etc. There are areas you will delve into and people will begin to call you, threaten you; try to blackmail you; try to coerce you etc. They come with all types of tactics.
Even me just moving certain motions on the floor of the house I have been threatened before that if you continue to move this kind of motions you will have problems.
Talkless of oversight because when you embark on proper oversight you’re going to step on toes whether you like it or not. It’s so easy to blackmail us as politicians because a lot of people tend to believe those stories when we are being blackmailed.
In the case of the Senator I don’t know what transpired. But if you ask me I will say the coincidence was not normal. To say a senator complained about an agency today, three days time you find drugs in his house. You and I will agree that in our system we have found so many cases of setup where even a policeman can come to your house and plant something in your house just to search. This is not peculiar to just Nigeria. People always tend to abuse their offices because they want to get back at you. It’s just only that it’s very rampant in Nigeria because of our system where a lot of things happen and no proper investigation is carried out to really know who did what especially with these our enforcement officers. I belong to a committee on financial crimes. In the case of Bobrisky and Very Dark Man we invited them because of those two institutions that were mentioned – National Correctional Service (NCoS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
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